(Mensaje se repite en Español) In what has become the all too common public slaughtering of innocent people by a single deranged male assassin, we never seem to get past deploring the easy access to weapons of human destruction that make such carnage so easy as the sole explanation of this sick phenomenon so common in the United States and nowhere else in the civilized world. What we don't do is look at where the Chris Harper Mercers of this world come from and how their many clear signs of ultimate insanity were systematically ignored by those charged with addressing them. Maybe the tragedy of greater magnitude in our society is allowing people like Harper Mercer to pass through it socially untouched without either identifying their deficits or meaningfully fulfilling their needs before they ran amok.

As of 2009 "the estimated total number of firearms available to civilians in the United States had increased to approximately 310 million: 114 million handguns, 110 million rifles, and 86 million shotguns." While more rigorous state and federal gun laws might be desirable, it is clear that with this number of guns already in circulation, there is no realistic way of limiting the access to guns for those determined to get them. But just maybe there is still a way of identifying and defusing at least some of the human time-bombs among us before they explode with now what is greater and greater frequency.

In listening to the wall to wall coverage on the shooting, one interesting fact of the shooter's background came out. He was from Southern California and had attended The Switzer Learning Center for special needs students and graduated in 2009. Schools like Switzer contract with school districts around Los Angeles to take on students that regular school districts are unable to accommodate, because of their varied mental conditions.

In talking about dysfunctional public school districts and the private schools that contract with them to deal with the special needs students these districts can't handle, what I have discovered is that many of these schools are just businesses first and non-profits only when it comes to taxes. Their top-heavy administration and goods and services providers do quite well financially, while little effort seems to be made to address the students' underlying needs in a timely manner. While these special needs students have various medical and mental conditions that make it objectively harder to nurture something positive in them, what just transpired in Roseburg, Oregon is sure to happen again elsewhere unless we finally put all human basic needs above human greed.

A good first step that might be taken in this case is to actually go out to schools which in all too many cases are taking money from the state for student services that they never offer in any form other than rhetoric. While individual freedom should continue to be treasured as a core principle of our society, one should not have the "freedom" to be allowed to move unscathed through the formation process in a manner that ultimately and predictably leads to such avoidable human tragedy.

If you or someone you know has been targeted and are in the process of being dismissed and need legal defense, get in touch:

Lenny@perdaily.com

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